Written by

Evangel full-time enrollment

Carol Taylor, president-elect and chief executive officer of Evangel University, announced Thursday the reduction of 12 staff positions effective Jan. 3 as part of cutting $1 million from the current budget year.

The employees were notified Thursday, six days before Christmas, as were an additional six faculty members who were told their contracts would not be renewed. The current budget year ends April 30.

“I don’t think there is ever a time when it is easy to let people know their service is going to be ended,” said Taylor, who started at Evangel on July 15 knowing she would have to cut the budget as a result of the consolidation of Central Bible College and the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary into Evangel University.

The Higher Learning Commission, based in Chicago, approved the consolidation in April.

All three institutions — university, Bible college and seminary — are owned and operated by the Assemblies of God, which has its international headquarters in Springfield.

The 12 staff members laid off Thursday can work through Jan. 3 and will receive salary and benefits through January. In addition, any employee who is laid off who has a dependent child attending Evangel will continue to have a tuition discount that is based on years of employment at the university, up to 150 credit hours.

Taylor said unlike the policy in much of corporate America, Evangel employees were not told to pack up their possessions and leave today. They have the opportunity say goodbye to co-workers.

“That is not the way this community has lived,” she said.

In addition to the layoffs, Evangel will not fill seven staff positions currently vacant.

Taylor, 62, came to Evangel from Vanguard University in Costa Mesa, Calif., where in her second year as president she trimmed $3.5 million from the budget.

Taylor said that the budget reductions at Evangel were approved by Evangel’s Board of Trustees on Dec. 12.

She said she had not been ordered by the board to balance the current budget. Instead, she said, most college presidents see that as a good practice and try to do that.

(Page 2 of 3)

Yet last year, Evangel had a operating budget deficit of $747,788. Neither Taylor nor spokesman Paul Logsdon could provide a history of operating budgets that would show when the university last had a balanced budget.

The Evangel board hired Taylor but also has kept long-time President Robert Spence until his retirement April 30. Spence, 78, is in his 40th year as Evangel president, which is the second-longest tenure of a college president in the nation. That’s why Taylor’s title is “president-elect.”

Spence has been on a sabbatical leave this semester and will return to work in January before retiring April 30. Both he and Taylor will have been on the Evangel payroll together for nine months.

Taylor was asked if — in light of the cuts and layoffs announced today — it was prudent to pay for, in effect, two presidents.

“That is a board decision,” Taylor said. She added that it is not unusual for a former college president to continue on in the role of a chancellor to primarily raise funds for an institution.

Back in June, the News-Leader asked George Wood, general superintendent of the Assemblies of God, about the plan to have the tenures of Taylor and Spence overlap.

“The new president will work to bring these three facilities together,” Wood said. “It would be better to give somebody a jump start on that rather than having Dr. Spence begin something he would not have the ability to complete.”

Wood, at the time, said the full consolidation of the three institutions will not be fully implemented until 2020, when it is hoped Evangel’s enrollment will have nearly doubled to 5,000 students.

Taylor said the current budget was balanced without reducing the wages or benefits of employees. She said trimming wages or benefits typically is not in the best long-term interests of a college.

Taylor said about half of the $1 million in cuts comes from personnel and the other half from operation.

She said the university is not eliminating any majors, but instead will trim where enrollment has been down in recent years.

(Page 3 of 3)

There has been a decline in enrollment, for example, in theater, she said. There has been growth and sustained enrollment in areas such as education and music.

Taylor said the university has trimmed its advertising budget and has reduced the number of university publications. In addition, departments have cut travel.

For example, she said, the university will no longer send as many employees to a national arts festival that earlier this year was held in Orlando, Fla. She did not know how many Evangel employees attended this year.

Taylor said the cuts announced today were only partly due to consolidation. The number of employees at the three institutions had already been trimmed from 506 to 426 as a result of consolidation. Of the 80 people who are gone, 43 retired or found employment elsewhere, Logsdon said. Thirty-seven were laid off.

Colleges nationwide, particularly small private ones like Evangel, are facing tough financial times in large part due to declining enrollment, Taylor said.

In October, Drury University announced it had laid off “fewer than 10 employees” and eliminated a total of 35 positions — including the layoffs — through retirement, consolidations and unfilled vacancies. Drury President David Manuel said declining enrollment at his school was the major reason for the reductions.

After Taylor spoke, the News-Leader requested enrollment figures for the past five years at Evangel. In general, enrollment has increased, not decreased.